Acceleration and Deceleration

If you understand some physics, the equations for acceleration and deceleration should be familiar to you.  If not, they are not that difficult to implement.  For the purposes of this project you don't need to fully understand the equations, you just need to understand it enough to use it.

For acceleration

d=distance traveled (in miles)
a=acceleration (which is 1/7200 miles per second squared in our example)
t=time spent accelerating (in seconds)
v0=initial velocity (speed in miles per second)
v1=final velocity (speed in miles per second)
 
    d= v0*t + 1/2 a*t*t
    v1= v0+a*t

For deceleration

The equations are identical for decleration, except that the value of a is -1/7200.  The negative sign indicates that the vehicle is slowing down.

 

WB01624_.gif (281 bytes) Back to Assignment 5